HALL, EDWARD (c. 1498-1547), English chronicler and lawyer, was a son of John Hall of Northall, Shropshire. Educated at Eton and King's college, Cambridge, he became common ser jeant of the city of London and judge of the sheriff's court. He was also M.P. for Bridgnorth. Hall's great work, The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York, commonly called Hall's Chronicle, was first published in 1542, and continued by Richard Graf ton (q.v.) . The value of the Chronicle in its early stages is not great, but is very considerable for the reign of Henry VIII. To the student of literature it has the exceptional interest of being one of the prime sources of Shakespeare's historical plays.
See J. Gairdner, Early Chroniclers of Europe; England (1879), and the editions of the Chronicle by Sir H. Ellis (1809) and C. Whitley (1904)•